Support for UK's Anaerobic Digester Initiative
UK - Dairy UK is backing Defra’s Shared Goals for Anaerobic Digestion, published earlier this week.Adding the voice of the dairy industry to the document, Dairy UK is also working on several initiatives of its own to boost the uptake of biogas generation among processors.
Dairy UK has co-ordinated a series of feasibility studies to identify suitable sites for large scale centralised anaerobic digesters. This work is expected to result in the development of at least one plant capable of generating over 10,000 MWhrs of energy per year from dairy waste, food waste and slurry from farms, saving about 2,000 tonnes of direct CO2 emissions.
We are also supporting novel anaerobic digestion technologies for small and medium dairy sites. A special conference for Dairy UK members in April will examine AD and a range of other renewable energy technologies. And our Dairy Farming and the Environment conference will take place in June.
Environment Manager Fergus McReynolds said: “Anaerobic digestion offers the dairy sector huge potential for generating more sustainable heat and power. We must work hard on implementing this technology if we want to equal the best in Europe, but we are determined to do so.
“Our hope at Dairy UK is to go beyond industry commitments in the Roadmap and establish more than three large scale AD plants. Work we are doing now could pave the way for dozens of biogas generators of different sizes.”
TheCattleSite News Desk